Al Owski’s Reviews > On the Origin of Time: Stephen Hawking's Final Theory > Status Update
Al Owski
is on page 182 of 352
“de Finetti in 1974 wrote: "My thesis… is...probability does not exist… only subjective probabilities exist, the degree of belief in the occurrence of an event attributed by a given person at a given instant and with a given set of information."…Throughout our lives, most of us gain confidence in subjective probabilities because we find that results we deem likely happen often, and those that we don't happen rarely.”
— 11 hours, 25 min ago
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Al’s Previous Updates
Al Owski
is on page 181 of 352
“Everett's framework, in which probabilities wiggle their way into quantum theory in a more subtle…way, much like the way probability enters our thinking in day-to-day life. Whether we ponder the weather, the lottery, or the shape of the next gravitational wave passing through planet Earth, we all use subjective probabilities all the time to quantify our uncertainty in situations where we have incomplete knowledge.”
— 16 hours, 24 min ago
Al Owski
is on page 181 of 352
“Everett himself said he sought somehow to bridge the positions of Einstein and Bohr. He claimed their differences were a matter of perspective and described his scheme as "objectively deterministic, with probability appearing at the subjective level." This is an interesting point. In the early Copenhagen formulation of quantum mechanics, probabilities were axiomatic and fundamental.”
— 16 hours, 24 min ago
Al Owski
is on page 179 of 352
“Everett pulled down Bohr's wall separating the quantum microworld from the classical macroworld. His key idea was to take the math behind quantum mechanics seriously and to apply it to everything. Suppose there is no collapse, he suggested, but only a single universal wave function that includes observers and everything else, evolving gently and smoothly...”
— Dec 17, 2025 04:50AM
Al Owski
is on page 177 of 352
“Niels Bohr, on the other hand, who had a background in philosophy as well as mathematics, had a profound intuition that quantum mechanics was consistent. Bohr took seriously the central tenet of quantum mechanics that observership—the very questions we ask of nature—affects how nature manifests itself. "No phenomenon is a real phenomenon until it is an observed phenomenon," he held.”
— Dec 16, 2025 04:30AM
Al Owski
is on page 177 of 352
“To Einstein, the probabilistic nature of quantum mechanics signaled that the theory was incomplete, that there had to be a deeper-lying framework that permitted an objectively real description of physical reality, regardless of any acts of observation. "The [quantum] theory produces a good deal but hardly brings us closer to the secret of the Old One," he wrote to Bohr. "I am convinced...He does not play dice"”
— Dec 16, 2025 04:28AM
Al Owski
is on page 175 of 352
“[Stephen:] The history of the universe depends on the question you ask. Good night.”
— Dec 16, 2025 04:24AM
Al Owski
is on page 175 of 352
“Stephen put together one more line: "I think that a proper quantum outlook (onto the universe] will lead to a different philosophy of cosmology in which we work from the top down, backward in time, starting from the surface of our observations." I was startled—Stephen's new top-down philosophy would seem to upend the relation between cause and effect in cosmological theory.”
— Dec 16, 2025 04:21AM
Al Owski
is on page 171 of 352
“The Cartesian answer to the scientific revolution was to move the Archimedean point inward, to man himself, and to choose the human mind as the ultimate point of reference. The dawn of the modern age threw men back upon themselves. From Dubito ergo sum, "I doubt, therefore I am," came Cogito ergo sum, "I think, therefore I am."”
— Dec 13, 2025 10:29AM
Al Owski
is on page 170 of 352
“Hannah Arendt, one of the twentieth century's most celebrated thinkers, sharply articulated this uncomfortable, straddled position in The Human Condition: "The great strides of Galileo proved that both the worst fear of human speculation-that our senses might betray us—and its most presumptuous hope–the Archimedean wish for a point outside from which to unlock universal knowledge–could only come true together."”
— Dec 13, 2025 10:29AM
Al Owski
is on page 170 of 352
“Now while the ontological status of the physical laws hardly matters in the controlled environment of laboratories, it explodes in our faces when we ponder their deeper origin—let alone when we inquire about their biophilic character.”
— Dec 13, 2025 10:23AM
